Apple iPod Nano Red user reviews (8GB)

Pros Thin good capacity- bullet proff

Cons no video or games

Summary I have had it for a year and it only has one scratch even though i am very hard on my stuff. Has a good capacity for my needs and is very good quality.

Pros Reliable, Solid, Good Battery Life, Clean Simple Interface

Cons Interface is a little basic, not cheap

Summary I'm a computer programmer by trade and a Windows guy at that ... but this little number has worked exactly how I wanted it to work over the last year.

It never seems to skip or stop. It's sleek and light and fits neatly into a pocket or armband. The battery life has been excellent and much better than I feared -- I use this thing for everything from mowing the lawn to 2 hour cycling trips. It even integrated seamlessly when I added the Nike+ component.

I have to admit, I thought the price a little high initially for something so simple, but it is designed so well and has been so reliable, I now think it's more than worth it. I've gotten my money's worth easily and have no real desire to upgrade to a newer model even.

Pros Better case, improved click wheel, superior SQ to earlier iPods

Cons Relatively expensive. iTunes 7 in Windows hasn't been fun. Lack of certain key features found on other devices.

Summary No, the Apple iPod nano doesn't do all the things I'd like a portable flash DAP to do. It doesn't have have a built-in radio tuner (my biggest gripe), or have built-in voice or direct-to-device recording. It doesn't have the capability to do any of the downloadable games that my 5.5G iPod is capable of, though in truth I rarely play any of the games on that iPod, so it's not like I'm missing out on much. The nano doesn't do video, but as with games this is something that I thought was still lacking on the original Video iPod, so vids on an even tinier screen has no value to me.

So what does the nano do well? For starters, the partnership Apple has with Samsung has yielded what I think is the best-sounding iPod ever, even better than the flagship hard drive-based units. The second-generation design addresses a number of serious flaws with the original iPod nano, namely in the delicate nature of the finish material and in the jerky operation of the click wheel. The aluminum casing of the 2nd-generation nano and its revised click wheel's operation are significant improvements over the earlier design.

Things that didn't change from original to second-gen are the virtues of the nano's ultra-lightweight design. The menu system is still as simple-to-use as any other iPod previously made. Even without the gaming (aside from the simple built-in ones) and video capability, the nano still has plenty of features that only go to compliment its primary purpose for existence: playing music. The stopwatch is still there, as is the clock. It does audiobooks and podcasts that, for instance, is something Microsoft's Zune cannot claim (at least for now...BTW, I now have one of these as well). It still has the rather token (I think) but still usable PDA-esque capabilities. And then there's the novel iPod-Nike exercise/running monitoring system for those so inclined. And of course it's linked to the biggest online music store around, if DRMed music is of your liking.

The downsides? Aside from the lack of onboard radio (the separate tuner Apple sells does work pretty well, but it seems a crime to ask for another $50 for the FM-only priviledge), the 8GB nano is pricey relative to its hard drive-based siblings and like-minded models from Apple's competition. But in the Apple world, that's the (current) price one pays for ultra-portability and freedom from HD disk read errors and crashes. The latest version of iTunes hasn't been much of a joy to deal with either; it's Version 7 iteration has been less stable in Windows XP than most any of the prior iterations. Up until recently with the latest firmware patch, USB2.0 transfer speeds have been difficult to maintain. In fact, large batch song transfers often would hang up after 50-100 songs, forcing me to cancel and restart; the latest firmware patch seems to have addressed this, but some incidental metadata information still gets dropped off. There's also a litany of gripes that I have about how Apple and iTunes does certain things, but these are not limited to just the nano and probably are more appropriately addressed in an iTunes-specific review.

Whether or not you like the (Product) Red unit's color (my wife bought one first; I got hooked when I actually listened to her's), at least of portion of the purchase price does go for a worthy cause. After finally breaking down and actually buying a Zune even when I had said elsewhere on CNET that I would not, I still have a healthy appreciation for ease of iTunes, however flawed and bloated I think Version 7 happens to be. For the content packrat, it does take a bit of getting used to that the 8GB (Product) Red nano and the 30GB Zune (or 30GB 5.5G iPod, for that matter) are the same price; actually, the Zune was cheaper because of Newegg's discounting, whereas the red nano was only available direct from Apple. But that's the price one pays for smallness. And after trying (and returning) the Sandisk e280 as an Apple alternative (even though I realized this before I tried the e280, it's really not very alt if one's library is made up of a lot of non-DRM AACs, and boy did it have a lot of line noise), I still have to say that the iPod formula is still the easiest and friendliest means of packing digital tunes around.

There may be jillions of these iPods around, but there's more to this than mere marketing. The ease of operation of the second-gen iPod nano is ample proof of that, even if it feels like one is joining the crowd. The latest nano is not perfect, but after the headaches and heartaches of fussing with that foul Zune software it's seems quite apparent to me that the iPod universe is still the leader of the pack even if it's sometimes lacking in a few of the details.

Pros weight, sound, ease of use, color, capacity, iTunes is pretty easy to use, goes loud as hell!

Cons price (same as 30GB model that plays movies???), haven't been able to transfer songs I BOUGHT in Yahoo! to Nano yet, SCREW DRM AND MICROSOFT!!, may have to burn songs bought to a CD then transfer >:-(

Summary I held out as long as possible (two years.) In fact, my first mp3 player was a mini, and I took it back within a couple of hours for a Rio Carbon Pearl. But I have to admit, this model won me over. It was an extremely close race between this and the Sansa E200 series, but I figured I know apple will be around for the long haul.

I LOVE IT, I can't believe I wrote that!! My wife has been bashing me all day because of the amount of garbage I talked about the iPods, and now I've got one!

I'm still trying to decide between the sony buds I love, and the "house" buds that came with the player. I'd give 10/10 if I didn't have to transfer/burn my purchased Yahoo! Unlimited tracks. I thought purchased meant I owned them, and I could do whatever I wanted. Tried to transfer directly, no luck. YUM recognized the iPod, accepted the music, but couldn't play it. AGAIN I SAY, SCREW DRM!